Friday, March 25, 2011

Fotopic - Gone and this time forever?

Fotopic Servers have disappeared (again), unlike the major outage in January 2009, this time it appears this is terminal and Fotopic will be history. Companies do fail and their Websites disappear overnight and this is just part of business life. So is the case of Fotopic different?

In business terms not really, but as a Photo Sharing site started back in 2001 it developed a loyal following and by 2007 was hosting over 76,400,000 Images, with Members across the world. The outage in 2009 seriously dented confidence, not just because it happened, but the poor customer service in telling Members what was going on.

Although never a member of Fotopic, several of my Friends are/were members and through them I am aware of others. They all spent considerable effort over many years putting together interesting Photo Galleries, many of which attracted considerable numbers of repeat visitors. Because of the amount of work that had been put into creating their Galleries, they stayed with Fotopic, even though the site owners seemed to unwilling to communicate with the Member Base.

But over the last 12 Months the situation further deteriorated , with frequent drop outs, lack of development  and even poorer than usual communications from the site owners. So there has been a 'drift' to other services, but this all takes time and again considerable effort and on the 8th March 2011, time ran out when Fotopic, without warning went dark!

No information has been received at time of writing from the Site Owners: Snappy Designs Ltd, who in turn are part of the ANY-Web Group

Even Businesses that fail at least try to communicate the fact to their Customers, but even to the end it appears Snappy Designs treated the Members of Fotopic with contempt.

Links:
An up to date Wikipedia Page on Fotopic
The Fotopic User Group (Google Groups)

A series of Posts on this Blog from 2009:
4th Jan 2009:
Fotopic Disappears - followed by a Deafening Silence
5th Jan 2009: Fotopic Disappears - But the Silence is broken:
5th Jan 2009: Fotopic Reappears

Friday, March 04, 2011

Mexicana's False Dawn

The plan for Mexicana to restart at least some operations has 'sputtered to a halt' as PC Capital (described as a 'tiny boutique investment firm') which was chosen by a judge-appointed mediator in November as the best option to bring Mexicana back to life, has failed to attract investors!

Whilst the Unions finally accepted the reality that there would be massive Job Cuts if the Airline was to be restarted, potential investors have been unable to raise sufficient funds, in part due to severance pay costs and Union demands on Salaries. But these form only element of the estimated $8000 Million USD Debt restructuring that would be required to relaunch (a sum which daily increases). The result Mexicana once more slips back into the Darkness of a Company in the limbo between bankrupt and liquidated. Every day that passes means that Mexicana's hopes of a relaunch lessen, if this was the last attempt to get Mexicana flying again it would be a sad end for one of the oldest and often one of the most innovative carriers in Latin America.

See:
Mexicana unsuccessfully tries to relaunch from Reuters

The previous posts in the Blog on Mexicana
05th August 2010 - Will Mexicana Survive?
25th August 2010 - Bringing Mexicana Back from the Brink - Step 1
31st August 2010 - Mexicana - Two Steps back and Teetering
12 November 2010 -A Brief Update on Mexicana
13 December 2010: - Another Brief Update on Mexicana